Taiwan | 'King Boat' Burning in Donggang (82 images)

The ornate Donglong Temple, by the sea in the southern Taiwanese fishing port of Donggang, is site for the town's week-long Burning of the King Boat festival, largest and most elaborate of its kind in Taiwan. The kings or plague gods, called Wangye, have been worshiped for centuries as protectors against pestilence and disease.
This festival, filled with the parading of Wangye images and elaborate large-scale temple activities, takes place...more »

Donggang Burning of the King Boat

The ornate Donglong Temple, by the sea in the southern Taiwanese fishing port of Donggang, is site for the town's week-long Burning of the King Boat festival, largest and most elaborate of its kind in Taiwan. The kings or plague gods, called Wangye, have been worshiped for centuries as protectors against pestilence and disease.
This festival, filled with the parading of Wangye images and elaborate large-scale temple activities, takes place only every three years in the ninth lunar month, usually in October/November. A nearly full-size mock-up junk is constructed, placed atop a mountain of spirit money, plague gods put aboard, and the vessel heaped high with sacrificial offerings. After elaborate Taoist ceremonies on the last day, the boat is set alight in the early morning hours just before dawn and ceremonially sent to sea to carry pestilence away (burnings are now conducted onshore to prevent misery floating ashore in other communities), while onlookers pray for peace.

This Taoist religious ceremony is still very much alive today. On the final night, tens of thousands of worshipers flock to the streets of Donggang, through which the huge junk is moved in an eerie, almost unreal procession. The small streets are jam packed with Taoist followers and spectators, so that the 1-km final journey of the King Boat from the temple to the site of the burning by the sea can easily take 2-3 hours.« less